RFMA and PRSM

Last month I had the pleasure of attending our first RFMA Conference. RFMA stands for the Restaurant Facilities Management Association and this event brings together several hundred facility managers for national and regional chain restaurants and their vendors. This was one of the best run and friendliest conferences I have ever attended. With so many conferences, service providers (vendors) are pushed off to the exhibit hall and are almost treated as a necessary evil. Not so with RFMA. Not only were the staff welcoming and appreciative of the vendors being present, but they also designed many educational sessions for the vendors edification. The restaurant facility manager attendees were also happy to talk about their needs and understood that the service providers were there to do business. Really a great conference. I came away with some great new relationships, I strengthened existing relationships, and I even came away with an RFP or two! I would encourage any restaurant facility manager or anyone providing services to that arena to join RFMA and plan on attending their conferences.
 
The PRSM conference is coming up in April in Kissimmee and is a similar event (though it is geared towards all retail facility managers). PRSM stands for the Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association. This will be our first time attending this event as well. I hope it goes as well as RFMA!